Jaunted Haunts Press

Noise into Punk Times Two

These are both fairly old albums, which may or may not have fully slipped under the radar by now as far as general interest is concerned, but both of them, I feel, have been great in terms of demonstrating that the reductionist ethos of punk rock does not necessarily have to result in impoverishment on the ideas front. Also telling is the vastly different means and ends to which these bands integrate aspects of noise music into  their own very unique visions.

Ex Models – Zoo Psychology

Ex-Models’ 2003 album ‘Zoo Psychology’ is an easy album to dislike: the guitars are razor thin and sound like anglegrinders, there’s not a riff in sight, and singer Shahin Motia’s emasculated yelp seems calculated to annoy the fuck out of anyone who doesn’t consider Adam Ant the second coming of Christ.

Yet, there’s something undeniably compelling about the singlemindedness with which they strip songs down to their bare mechanical skeletons, and the way they nail the atonal scrawl of no-wave bands like Mars, DNA, and, particularly, James Chance and the Contortions, into taut, hyperactive math-rock rhythms.

The pervasive theme on the album is an almost desperate will-to-hedonism, born from an apocalyptic reading of post-structural confusion; i can only describe it  as the sound of someone who found out he has 5 hours to live and decides to spend those hours trying to fuck everything in sight. The unlikely pairing of sex and theory is exemplified in the track ‘Hott 4 Discourse’, while the ‘pretty pretty pink noise’ on the track of the same title, ‘will set you on fire’ – as is screeched in a way that implies a very agonizing form of ecstacy.

Zoo Psychology is best consumed in small doses, but the fact that it races through 14 tracks in less than 25 minutes takes care of that for you.

Stream tracks from Zoo Psychology here

Parts & Labor – Stay Afraid

Parts & Labor’s approach is altogether more anthemic: their songs are quite reminiscent of Mission of Burma,  with a subtly Celtic melodic sensibility to it. What’s not so subtle is the blanket of analog bleeps, groans and squeals that propel these already furious songs into the stratosphere. The album is a relentless jolt out of complacency, with the distressed electronics acting as a kind of shorthand for an information age gone haywire.

Stream Tracks from ‘Stay Afraid’ here

As far as these bands’ subsequent fates are concerned: Ex Models have shed members and careened further down the path of noisy abstraction with the Chrome Panthers album, whilst Parts & Labor have added members, and generally become altogether more docile, although the electronic noise is still present on their subsequent albums, and their 2008 album ‘Receivers‘ makes good on the band’s democratic stance by using noise samples submitted by fans.

Disjointed ramblings on other, more recent albums

Gang Gang Dance – Saint Dymphna initially felt like a letdown after the excellent ‘God’s Money‘ – but then, anything would. After repeated assessment on it’s own terms it became apparent that ‘Saint Dymphna’ is probably the boldest, densest, most literate album yet to adopt such a pop production ethic. The result is something like what the top 40 might sound like in a perfect world.
On the topic of former noiseniks who have cleaned up their act and generally inched closer to mainstream acceptance: i have found Animal Collective‘s two albums after Sung Tongs to be rather ignorable, in fact i don’t think i’ve even listened to either of them all the way through. The Panda Bear solo album ‘Person Pitch’, however, seemed to be mining a very interesting vein, and judging by the single ‘My Girls’, and general critical response, it looks like the new album ‘Merriweather Post Pavilion‘ may be not a return to form so much as an ideal synthesis of years of exploration. The track itself is highly addictive.
Why?‘s 2008 album Alopecia also caught me quite recently, despite having been out for a while, and though it teeters dangerously close to capital ‘I’ Indie at times, the savagely observational lyrics reminds me of Pavement in the best possible way: when Yoni Wolf sings about ‘both of our names and an ampersand embroidered proudly on a kitchen tow el”, the line encompasses both the naivete before and the disillusionment after the fact.
On the more abstract front, there’s Fennesz‘s The Black Sea, the first proper album in a long while from perhaps the most distinctive electronic musician around. The new album retains the sprawl of ‘Venice’, but the level of granular detail happening here is an awesome reminder of why this man is as vital as he is.
In a very similar vein, there will be a new Tim Hecker album out soon as well, called An Imaginary Country, if it’s anywhere near as good as the distorted bliss-out of ‘Harmony in Ultraviolet‘, then i’ll be the proverbial pig in shit.